Hey guys,

I've been popping back and forth to this board for a fair few months now as it's a great resource and always has interesting topics to whittle away my lunch hours at work!

One thing I have been looking for all over the place is a wiring diagram for a double neck strat but I haven't managed to turn one up anywhere. I have just collected the last pieces of my project build together - some lovely Fender Original 57/62s - and now have to somehow get my dream guitar up and running with what little personal electronics knowledge I have.

As you can probably tell by my user ID, I am a huge Sambora fan and the double neck I am putting together is based on his mid-90s flame cherryburst strat - two 6 strings with HSS configuration, a Floyd on the lower neck and a hardtail on the upper. I have a two way neck selector switch but cannot work out where this needs to go in the circuit.

Any help you guys can offer would be very much appreciated.

Here's some pics of it from a couple of weeks ago btw:







Richie's original model:

What kind of switch are you using? It looks like the controls are going to be common, right? It will need to be wired to select a pickup bank, top or bottom.

It's interesting that you used a locking nut on the hardtail.

Yeah, the controls are to be shared. I think the switch needs to go between the jack and pickup selector switch but don't know how to hook it up. I'll have to check what type of switch it actually is when I get in from work.

The locking nut on the hardtail wasn't done by choice. You can only buy the Sambora signature necks in a FR version so I have an ebanol replacement on order but there's a four month wait.

I'll just take the clamps of the locking nut in the meantime so it'll effectively be 'unlocked'.

Hi SamboStrat83,

I don't know the answer to your question but I just wanted to say that I too am a huge Sambora fan (I actually saw them twice the other week at the O2 arena in London....Fantastic shows!) and think your guitar is looking great, love that Cherry Sunburst!!

I always wanted one of his early USA signature models in the Cherry Sunburst with the large 'Star' inlays but have never managed to find one. In fact, the Custom Shop are currently building me a Custom Deluxe Stratocaster which I have asked to be colour matched to Richie Sambora's Cherry Sunburst Strat!

I'll look forward to seeing more pictures as your project progresses!

Good luck with the wiring,

Russ

HOLY CRAP!

This is the out and out raddest thing I've seen in a while. Double Neck, Richie's over-the-top star inlays, an ostentatious tortoise shell pickguard that just says "Yes, there's too much tortoise shell here, what of it?", and to die for heritage cherry burst...

Fantastic, I applaud you!

_________________
My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Thanks - it is a pretty crazy guitar... which is probably the main reason I had to build it!

Richie had some wacky tastes back then - gold hardware as well!!

Russ, I used to have an original 1995 cherryburst Sambora but had to sell it on eBay a few years ago.

I do have two other Samboras though - a 1995 USA model in vintage white and a 1996 MIJ Black Paisley version as well.

I'll keep the photos coming as it moves forwards - hopefully it'll be finished in the next couple of weeks.

Here is what I was thinking.

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/produc ... hrome.html

You can select top, bottom, or both. Wire the top pickup bank grounds and hots on one side, the bottom pickup bank grounds and hots on the other side. The center poles will go to the pickup select switch and pot case.

Top p/u neck-------X X1 X---Bottom p/u neck

Top p/u middle-----X X2 X---Bottom p/u middle

Top p/u bridge-----X X3 X---Bottom p/u bridge

Top p/u grounds---X X4 X---Bottom p/u grounds


Terminal 1: 5-way selector switch neck
Terminal 2: 5-way selector switch middle
Terminal 3: 5-way selector switch bridge
Terminal 4: Volume pot case

Another way would be to switch the grounds on the pickups with a SPDT switch and wire everything directly to the 5-way switch.

Hey, thanks for that. I'm pretty sure it's a SPDT switch I have so maybe the latter method would be better seeing as I already have the correct switch component.

When you get it done, let us see and hear it. It looks great!

I'm pulling my hair out with this. I think I've got it and then it all goes to pot. If anyone is willing to get MS Paint out and show me how this needs to be done, I'd be extremely grateful - I've drawn out the exact components I have below.

The TBX pots just need to act as regular tone pots - I don't know why I got TBXs instead of regular tone pots. It was a fair few years ago that I got em and I can't remember why I opted for them over regular pots. LOL



Thanks to whomever takes pity on me and bails me out on this one.

What do you want the selector switch to do?

Standard 5 way set up on both necks (bridge/bridge-mid/mid/mid-neck/neck) but only ever one neck on at once.

Wire a 5-way to each guitar, going out to common controls, with a latching killswitch between the 5-way and the controls, so you can turn off one guitar and play the other like you had wanted. Put the 5-way and killswitch for the top guitar in between the guitars (near the bridges), and leave the one for the second guitar where it is. Voila! You have common controls, and can select between guitars with the killswitches.

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'07 Squier Affinity Sunburst Strat SE
Fender Frontman 25R
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Danelectro D-2 Fab Overdrive
Delta Lab Multi Effects

The 2-way switch will go between the volume control and the 5-way switch.
You'll be selecting which section of the 5-way is going to the volume control. The tones will be jumpered on the 5-way switch, unless you want a master tone for each neck.